13 fun facts about Lautaro Martinez

Lautaro Martinez's father Mario Martinez was a professional footballer himself. Born in 1972, he played as a left-back for Nacional B (second-tier of Argentine football system) for sides like Club Villa Mitre, Racing de Olavarria, Liniers de Bahia Blanca, and Club Rosario Puerto Belgrano.

Before Martinez had joined Racing Club in 2014, another centre forward had already joined the Racing Club academy, Braian Mansilla. They were both 16 years old when Martinez joined the club.

The two were directly competing for the centre forward spot, and Mansilla saw that Martinez was too good. He knew that the newcomer would take his spot as the centre forward.

After Martinez arrived, he couldn't easily adapt to his new surroundings and was feeling extremely homesick. At one point, he decided to leave Racing Club and return to his family in Bahia Blanca, which would have cleared the way for Mansilla.

One day, Mansilla noticed that Martinez was crying because of all the difficulties he was facing. What Mansilla told Martinez would change the latter's life.

“How are you going to leave, idiot? Do you know what this is? We can play in Primera! Stop f****** around, stay here, one day we're going to play together in there, and we're going to break in [into the first team]. Come on, stay," Mansilla told Martinez.

Although both these players were of the same age, Mansilla treated Martinez like his younger brother and motivated him to fight his apprehensions. They would end up playing together for Racing Club's first team a few years later.

"Braian was one of those who opened the doors for me," Martinez acknowledged in an interview with Argentine sports magazine El Grafico in 2017.
"He knew that I was coming to take his job, but he was always available. I wanted to go back to Bahia because I missed it, but he convinced me that I had to stay, enjoy this, that it is unique. I will always be grateful to him."

Martinez and his teammates had a training session at Liniers with the Bahia team. Scouts from Racing Club's academy were already conducting trials. After Martinez and his team's training began, the Racing Club staff surprisingly decided to stay back.

One of the those staff members was Fabio Radaelli, who was the coach of the Racing Club reserve team back then. He noticed Martinez's quality and decided to scout him for a couple more games, before directly signing him without any trials. The rest is history as he went on to score 27 goals in 62 games for the first team.

“He is a mix between Juan Esnaider and Diego Milito," Radaelli claimed when praising the then-16-year-old.

"I remember when I first saw him, I asked myself if he was naturally left or right-footed as he controlled and played the ball with both [feet], and that remains the same today.

"After watching him for 10 minutes, I realised that he was a special kind of player.”

In the same interview with El Grafico, Martinez confessed his love for basketball, going as far as to say that he would have chosen to be a professional basketball player if he was not a footballer.

"I like it a lot," Martinez responded when asked if he liked basketball.

"As a boy I played basketball, but at 15 I had to choose [between basketball and football] and I decided on football. But, if I weren't a football player, I would play basketball, I love it. What's more: I'd rather watch a basketball game than a football game."

While steadily moving up the Liniers' youth ranks, Martinez also tried going to trials for some of the biggest clubs and academies in Argentina, including powerhouses Boca Juniors. But due to his physical limitations, the then-15-year-old's hopes were dashed.

“They told me I had no power or speed and that I could come back if I had worked on it. I was half resigned and angry,” Martinez later remarked.

As an Argentine, Martinez's idol wasn't one of Diego Maradona, Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Batistuta, Hernan Crespo, or Gonzalo Higuain, but a certain Colombian legend named Radamel Falcao.

The 25-year-old has reiterated time and again how he wants to be a player like Falcao.

"If I [wanted to] look more like Batistuta or Kun Aguero? No, I want to look like Radamel Falcao. I always said it. I follow him a lot, I try to imitate him,” Martinez admitted while he was still plying his trade for Racing Club in 2018.

“My childhood idol was Falcao, as a child I admired him when he played at River Plate," he confessed once again in 2020.

"I got to know him in the Copa America [in 2019], playing against his Colombian team, and I asked him to swap shirts.”

Martinez is a big tattoo aficionado, with his entire left arm adorned with tattoos.

However, he got his first-ever tattoo done when he was just 14, as a tribute to his grandfather.

“My first tattoo has great meaning, and I got it early in my life. When I was 14-years-old I decided to get a tattoo of my grandfather’s name,” Martinez revealed ahead of Inter's Champions League group stage match against Real Madrid in November 2020.

Following in the footsteps of Argentina's greats such as Sergio Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain, Martinez began drawing the interest of Europe's top teams after scoring 53 goals in 64 games for Racing's reserve team.

Racing Club and Real Madrid reached an agreement in 2015 to acquire Martinez, but the young player showed maturity well beyond his years by turning down the move to the team that had won the Champions League the previous year.

"In relation to the interest from European clubs, Lautaro has kept his feet on the ground," Mario Martinez stated in an interview with TyC and La Red.

"In 2015, everything was agreed with Real Madrid but he made the decision not to go. He was not ready and decided to stay at Racing."

In an interview with MARCA in 2016, Martinez confirmed the story about Real Madrid reaching an agreement with Racing to sign him.

"It is true that I received a rough draft of an offer from Real Madrid to play a year on loan, with a buyout option, but my buyout clause was a bit high at €8 million," Martinez explained.

Due to Martinez's knack of collecting yellow cards, his sheer relentlessness and tenacity, and the leadership qualities he displays on the pitch, he earned the nicknamed El Toro ("The Bull" in Spanish).

On June 22, 2020, when football had resumed behind closed doors after the coronavirus pandemic put a halt on all sports, Inter welcomed Sampdoria at San Siro in a Serie A encounter.

Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring in the 10th minute and Martinez made it 2-0 in the 33rd minute following a low cross from Antonio Candreva.

Martinez celebrated the goal by lifting his Inter jersey up to reveal the undershirt which had the words "Feliz dia Papa" ("Happy day, Dad") printed on it. It was a Father's Day tribute by Martinez for his father.

“It was something surprising, but at the same time unmatched. It left me speechless,” Mario Martinez told Argentine outlet Racing de Alma.

“Sometimes you dream of these things, but when they happen and you see them, they leave you paralyzed. For every parent, I think it’s one of the best gifts you can receive.”

Martinez became the first Inter player to score at Camp Nou since Roberto Boninsegna in 1970 on October 2, 2019 when he scored his first UEFA Champions League goal in a 2-1 group stage loss away to Barcelona.

He opened the scoring inside just two minutes.

When Martinez opened the scoring for Inter away at Slavia Praha in November 2019 in a UEFA Champions League group stage fixture, he became only the fourth Inter player in club history to score in four consecutive Champions League games (after Hernan Crespo in 2002, Christian Vieri in 2003, and Samuel Eto'o in 2010).

This run of scoring in four consecutive games included the goal against Barcelona at Camp Nou, goals at home and away against Borussia Dortmund, and a brace against Slavia Praha.

He also became only the fifth Argentinian to achieve the feat (after Hernan Crespo in 2002, Ezequiel Lavezzi in 2013, Sergio Aguero in 2019, and Lionel Messi on six different occasions).

Martinez loves to cook food and revealed that his favourite dish is 'Pastel de papa', which is a South American potato pie.

“In the kitchen I am king of the asado (roasted food)! But my favourite dish to eat is ‘Pastel de papa’, a classic Argentinian recipe with potatoes, meat and many other ingredients,” the striker told Inter's website.